I was born in a "poor" family. Both of my parents were in prison until I was aged 8 (don't ask). I grew up wearing my older brothers out grown clothes. I don't mean some of my clothes used to be his I mean all of them until I was 15, when I got a job and started buying my own.

I was born in a "poor" family. Both of my parents were in prison until I was aged 8 (don't ask). I grew up wearing my older brothers out grown clothes. I don't mean some of my clothes used to be his I mean all of them until I was 15, when I got a job and started buying my own.

And the rich who have never worked are stupid, too. It's about doing things that give the brain a workout.

If you sit on your ass all day long, you will be stupid. Poor, rich, whatever.

Free money doesn't improve people's lot in life. Free money just keeps people in stasis. Like a house cat who has never lived outdoors has, for all practical purposes, mind of a kitten. A rich kid who never works, a poor person who never works and lives on handouts/welfare will never have a fully matured brain.

I was born in a "poor" family. Both of my parents were in prison until I was aged 8 (don't ask). I grew up wearing my older brothers out grown clothes. I don't mean some of my clothes used to be his I mean all of them until I was 15, when I got a job and started buying my own.

"The thing about not having much money is you have to take much more responsibility for your life. You can't pay people to watch your kids or clean your house or fix your meals. You can't necessarily afford a car or a washing machine or a home in a good school district. That's what money buys you: goods and services that make your life easier.

The working poor haven't abdicated responsibility for their lives. They're drowning in it." Link

After Reagan and Thatcher established the language of the mid-Victorian mill-owner as the rhetoric of political discourse, the 'deserving poor' were going to be marginally better treated by the State than the 'undeserving' poor. This would get people out of the welfare trance and into the economy. Fine. Except the jobs they got were the ones which paid the least and which people needed the most. And they came out of the poverty trance to the realization that since society didn't really give a damn, neither did they. Rise of crime rate, though growing signs of solidarity amongst the outlaw tribes. There is still a class not being addressed and which nobody is successful in repressing. Only in countries which adopted the T/R model have crime, children bearing children and urban and rural poverty risen in such numbers. Countries which pay high taxes, give teeth to their social services, run a humane health service whose first duty is to patients (not 'caring' rhetoric approved by shareholders) and actually feed the hungry as a matter of the social contract between voters and their representatives. For the majority of voters will tell you they don't mind paying taxes so long as that money goes to the places it's supposed to go. If they object, give them the option of opting out of society as some rural communes have successfully done. Not that many are absolutely free of society but some have come close.And if people lack the imagination to see such realities for themselves, I don't know. If this is going to be no more than a larger quake than the last one after which we can all go back to normal, then I see an increasingly impoverished future. If we can decentralize AND improve social services by encouraging, if you like, an equal distribution of taxes, so much the better. The dream of an America devoted to individual liberty, made up of thousands of small communities, ensuring justice at every level, self-discipline being something worth attaining... is one I've always kept as an ideal, though there now has to be an urban version of that, of course.The American Dream clashed a bit with the advantages of an enlarged, tax-paying immigrant base which further devalued labor to the advantage of capital. And I think it's likely to worsen now, if people decide to impress the T/R pattern with increased violence. We need flexible thinkers, not monumental institutions restored to us or we ARE done for.

I was born in a "poor" family. Both of my parents were in prison until I was aged 8 (don't ask). I grew up wearing my older brothers out grown clothes. I don't mean some of my clothes used to be his I mean all of them until I was 15, when I got a job and started buying my own.

I was born in a "poor" family. Both of my parents were in prison until I was aged 8 (don't ask). I grew up wearing my older brothers out grown clothes. I don't mean some of my clothes used to be his I mean all of them until I was 15, when I got a job and started buying my own.

I was born in a "poor" family. Both of my parents were in prison until I was aged 8 (don't ask). I grew up wearing my older brothers out grown clothes. I don't mean some of my clothes used to be his I mean all of them until I was 15, when I got a job and started buying my own.

Now? I have a good job, a good degree, and am studying for a masters degree.

Being poor does not make you stupid.

It made you too stupid to understand that a single anecdote isn't a valid sample size from which meaningful conclusions about complex issues can be drawn.

Ah, now this is where I can provide some evidence. When I was a younger and went on what in the UK was called "Employment Training", I ended up very quickly as a tutor for the long term unemployed. I specialised in IT skills and adult numeracy and literacy.

I can extend my sample set to several hundred people who were very intelligent but had little or no formal education, but had been written off as stupid poor people.

Many of my students went on to hold down good, well paying jobs, that usually required a degree.

I think I DO know what I am talking about, and have a decent set of numbers to back it up.

marsoft:Ah, now this is where I can provide some evidence. When I was a younger and went on what in the UK was called "Employment Training", I ended up very quickly as a tutor for the long term unemployed. I specialised in IT skills and adult numeracy and literacy.

I can extend my sample set to several hundred people who were very intelligent but had little or no formal education, but had been written off as stupid poor people.

Many of my students went on to hold down good, well paying jobs, that usually required a degree.

I think I DO know what I am talking about, and have a decent set of numbers to back it up.

I don't think you understand what the article is saying or are giving too much credence to the headline.It's not that the poor are truly stupid, or even incapable, it's that the mental demands of being poor are taxing their brainpower to such a degree that they have less ability to focus, think, and plan.

I was born in a "poor" family. Both of my parents were in prison until I was aged 8 (don't ask). I grew up wearing my older brothers out grown clothes. I don't mean some of my clothes used to be his I mean all of them until I was 15, when I got a job and started buying my own.

Sergeant Grumbles:marsoft: Ah, now this is where I can provide some evidence. When I was a younger and went on what in the UK was called "Employment Training", I ended up very quickly as a tutor for the long term unemployed. I specialised in IT skills and adult numeracy and literacy.

I can extend my sample set to several hundred people who were very intelligent but had little or no formal education, but had been written off as stupid poor people.

Many of my students went on to hold down good, well paying jobs, that usually required a degree.

I think I DO know what I am talking about, and have a decent set of numbers to back it up.

I don't think you understand what the article is saying or are giving too much credence to the headline.It's not that the poor are truly stupid, or even incapable, it's that the mental demands of being poor are taxing their brainpower to such a degree that they have less ability to focus, think, and plan.

Sergeant Grumbles:marsoft: Ah, now this is where I can provide some evidence. When I was a younger and went on what in the UK was called "Employment Training", I ended up very quickly as a tutor for the long term unemployed. I specialised in IT skills and adult numeracy and literacy.

I can extend my sample set to several hundred people who were very intelligent but had little or no formal education, but had been written off as stupid poor people.

Many of my students went on to hold down good, well paying jobs, that usually required a degree.

I think I DO know what I am talking about, and have a decent set of numbers to back it up.

I don't think you understand what the article is saying or are giving too much credence to the headline.It's not that the poor are truly stupid, or even incapable, it's that the mental demands of being poor are taxing their brainpower to such a degree that they have less ability to focus, think, and plan.

I am saying that is bullshiat. I am saying that being poor does not make you less able to focus, think or plan.

In fact I am saying the opposite can be true. It just depends on where the focus is. If you are for instance so poor you cannot afford food, it basically forces you to focus, think, and plan on how to get enough money to eat.

I was born in a "poor" family. Both of my parents were in prison until I was aged 8 (don't ask). I grew up wearing my older brothers out grown clothes. I don't mean some of my clothes used to be his I mean all of them until I was 15, when I got a job and started buying my own.

marsoft:I am saying that is bullshiat. I am saying that being poor does not make you less able to focus, think or plan.

In fact I am saying the opposite can be true. It just depends on where the focus is. If you are for instance so poor you cannot afford food, it basically forces you to focus, think, and plan on how to get enough money to eat.

Oh. In that case, it's bullshiat and you're a moron. For all your talk of being poor, you've either never had to worry about where your next meal was coming from or you learned nothing from the experience. Desperation doesn't make people smarter, it makes them irrational.

marsoft:I can extend my sample set to several hundred people who were very intelligent but had little or no formal education, but had been written off as stupid poor people.

The mere existence of smart poor people does not refute the findings of this study. I'm not saying the study is necessarily right, I haven't read it, but your arguments against it are irrelevant.

The study does not say "poor people are dumb". It says that, "on average, poor people have lower cognitive performance on certain tasks than rich people". It's a relative comparison between poor and rich people. You can observe as many poor people as you like, but it's irrelevant if you don't compare them to a "similar" population of rich people, and look for differences. Also, the study found that cognitive performance improved within the same person as their income increased, so it's not some absolute statement about their native "intelligence".